Who ya gonna call? How about the original cast?

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. --- Yes, it looks like "Ghostbusters" is rising from the dead. No, not as a remake, but as the third picture in the film franchise, even though the second "Ghostbusters" movie --- you know, the lousy one --- passed this way 20 years ago.

Of course, sequel and/or remake talk generally comes pretty cheap. I'm still not convinced that a film based on the "Dallas" TV series will ever come to pass (and thank goodness), despite all the true believers out there.

The trick to "Ghostbusters 3" happening appears to be the active involvement of almost everyone from the original cast, particularly Dan Aykroyd. His interest doesn't surprise me, nor does that of Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, the latter as the ghostbuster who famously came in toward the end of the first "Ghostbusters" film for no apparent reason and mostly stood in the background. What else have they got going on?

The tricky star to land, even to get to just answer his phone, is the eccentric Bill Murray, but when I spoke to him last fall for that creepy-weird kids' flick "City of Ember," the star acknowledged that he was getting more questions that day about a new "Ghostbusters" film than the "Ember" thing, and that he had to take that seriously.

Now, interest from film journalists doesn't necessarily translate into interest from audiences at large, but I don't know, would you go see all these old guys revisit these characters again lo, these many decades later? I'd certainly be curious.

Said Aykroyd to MTV.com, "There will be a whole new generation that has to be trained. They'll be lots of cadets, boys and girls, who'll be learning how to use the psychotron, the accelerators and all the new stuff. And that whole new generation will be led by an individual who you'll all love when you meet him but I'm not going to tell you anything yet."

As of now the one principal cast member from the first two films still not on board is Sigourney Weaver, who played Dana Barrett, but I'm betting she'll show. Every time I've spoken with the actress she's expressed interest in revisiting the "Alien" franchise, although that now appears to be dead and buried. She has an appreciation for the movies that helped to establish her career. She'll be there.

The third "Ghostbusters" film is very tentatively scheduled for a 2011 release.